Discover How Computer Programs Work
Hello and welcome to this course on how computer programs work!
Most of you will probably have heard of algorithms at some point before, whether online, or maybe even during a conversation about IT. It’s a word that comes up fairly often. But what exactly does it mean? Algorithms are simply processes which help us make computer programs to solve a problem—and we’ll learn how in this course!
Discover the Structure of the Course
This course will introduce you to the main concepts you need to create a computer program. However, this is an extremely broad topic, so we won’t cover absolutely everything to do with programming, but you will gain a fun, step-by-step insight into the subject.
The first thing you should know is that there won’t be much math involved, as I want you to fully understand the essential concepts. However, this will limit us to some extent, because when you finish the course, you’ll know a lot more about the general concepts of algorithms and how to design a program and break it down into its different elements, but you won’t be able to solve complex problems that require a bit more math.
But that’s OK—for the moment, we’ll have plenty to think about! We’ll see how to solve a problem by breaking it down, learn about the different types of data, and find out how to use them. The last chapter of the course provides some resources to help you take your learning further.
The last three chapters of this course do contain some math concepts, but don’t worry—you don’t need to be an expert to understand them!
Meet Your Teachers
Kurt is a machine learning data scientist by day, and a data science educator by night. His interests all center on making use of data; from basic business insights all the way up to engineering machine and deep learning systems. He is also dedicated to education and has made a consistent effort to mentoring and giving back what he knows to budding engineers and scientists.
Ranga is an engineer specializing in embedded systems, but also a mentor and teacher in several different schools. He wrote the videos you’ll find in this updated course.
Céline is the original author of this course. She’s a freelance developer, entrepreneur, and trainer.
Learn by Practicing
Are you familiar with how OpenClassrooms courses work?
This course follows a logical sequence split into three parts. Each part contains several chapters. It’s best to complete these in order.
In each chapter, you’ll find:
an introductory video summarizing the main information to take away.
text which recaps the content of the video, and most importantly, gives extra explanations and practical examples. It will also provide you with specific tools and external resources to help you, or files to download.
You’ll also regularly come across:
exercises in the “Over to You” section. These provide an opportunity to put what you’ve learned into practice, and are a good way to speed up the learning process!
And at the end of each part of the course, you’ll find:
a quiz to put your new knowledge to the test!
Before you start, here’s some advice to get the most out of the course content and optimize your learning:
Watch the videos at the start of each chapter to understand why the concepts covered are important.
Read the text below the video and complete the activities in the “Over to You” section, to find out how to use these concepts.
Take advantage of every opportunity to practice! It’s a good idea to take time out to practice on your own and try out what you’ve read in the course as you go along.
Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
